Dear xxxxx,
by DawnFire and Silver Huntress
Summary: Letters to the dead from the living and vice versa, some with stories outside the letter. Not necessarily in order of time. SPOILERS for books 5-7, mostly deaths and some situations. In general, not AU, although some may be. Now with normal letters too.
1. Intro and Disclaimer

A/N:

I bid you welcome, dear Readers, to a series of Letters (to the dead from the living, and vice versa). Some will simply be the letter, while others will have a story and a reaction along with it. I will be attempting not to repeat myself, and to explore various themes (Humor, Romance, Tragedy, Angst, etc.) within these letters. One is written and will be posted shortly; a second needs only to be typed up and finished.

These are the letters that were probably never written, but could have been. They may well have been inspired by fics such as 'I'll Remember You Laughing' and fics like it; I am no longer certain. However, I do like the idea, and I hope to make you laugh, cry, and say 'Aw' at various points throughout these letters. These are not going to be completely somber or morbid; indeed, with some of the characters that I am using, it would be impossible!

While I currently seem to be writing with members of the Light side, I will probably expand this to include the Dark side as well...

I hope you enjoy reading these (indeed, I hope you read them at all!). I will be posting ONE DISCLAIMER, on THIS PAGE, to APPLY to the ENTIRE FIC. This will also most likely be the only A/N, although I am not sure as of yet.

If you have any suggestions for letters and/or story ideas to go with them, if you like this, or if you have some way it can be improved, please review and tell me. I would prefer not to be flamed, though.

This story will be updated whenever I have finished ideas to post,

Yours,

~DawnFire~

* * *

**DISCLAIMER (for the entire story) :** Strangely enough, I never noticed that I had a British accent...probably because I don't. So unless JKR suddenly lost her accent and became a teenager who has never even been to England, I highly doubt that she is me. Ie, **_I don't own the Harry Potter series or the characters in it_**--I am only borrowing them. I quite happily acknowledge J. K. Rowling as the author of the amazing _HP_ series, and equally happily acknowledge myself as a writer of FANfiction, as in fiction written by a FAN, and not the author. Actually, try looking at the website--'fanfiction . net'. Weird, I didn't notice it being 'onlinewritersofspinoffsoftheirPUBLISHEDandORIGINALwork . net' or some such title...

* * *

Have a nice day!

~DawnFire~


	2. Dear Sirius: RJL

* * *

~To: Sirius Black, Animagus, a.k.a. Padfoot~

Dear Sirius,

Nice of you to bloody die on me, wouldn't you say? Please note the sarcasm.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm the one writing. Me. Remus Lupin. Moony. Werewolf. Half-breed. Whatever you feel like calling me at the moment.

Personally, I'm rather inclined to call _you_ a mangy, idiotic mutt at the moment.

Honestly, what were you thinking? Oh, right—nothing. Nothing whatsoever. Not 'uh-oh, that's a potentially lethal curse coming at me, better _duck_!'. Not 'hmm, maybe I should look up for a second to see that Dumbledore's here and the fight's over...'! Not 'I have a best friend and a godson to think of, not to mention a cousin and a group of other friends. They might miss me if I die. So maybe I should try _not_ to die.'! Nothing! You weren't thinking about Harry, Tonks, me, _anyone_! Just your stupid fight!

I apologize for that, but it's very close to the full moon. And I believe I have a right to yell at you anyway...not to mention that you'll never read this letter, so why should I bother trying to be more polite?

You're—ridiculous. A bloody git. Only thinking of yourself. Of course, now you're not thinking of anything at all...

We can't even have a proper funeral for you, did you know that? No chance to say goodbye. _None._ D'you know how much that hurts, Padfoot? I've seen Harry's face, when he thinks no one's watching him. I've never seen, nor have I ever thought, hoped, or wished to see, such pain on a fifteen-year-old's face. A _fifteen-year-old_, Sirius. Fifteen. I've met grown-ups who haven't gone through that much pain, that much suffering, who can barely even _imagine_ it. Did you know that?

I bet you're having a jolly good time up there, wherever you are. Laughing with James, just like old times. Getting smacked over the head by Lily, just like old times. You probably don't even miss anyone that you left behind. The world you left behind.

Truth is, you're probably better off out of it.

We're leading up to a full-out war, Sirius. War. That mean anything to you? We're going to lose people, I don't know how many. I don't _want_ to know how many.

Voldemort's on the move, Sirius, and he's going to do his best not to let any of us survive.

I don't know how to end this letter. Mostly because it's not even a letter, really, just an outpouring of feelings, of emotions.

I hate you. Well, no, I don't. But I really wish you hadn't died on me, Padfoot. I miss you. We were the last two Marauders (apart for Wormtail, that is), and, well, fool that I am, I expected that to last, if only for a little while longer. I didn't expect you to do something stupid and get yourself killed. Well, I probably should have anticipated the 'doing something stupid' part, shouldn't I? I mean, that's practically your trademark...

Say hi to James and Lily for me, mate. I'll see you...and it'll probably be sooner than I used to anticipate.

-Remus

~Remus Lupin, werewolf, a.k.a. Moony, signing off~

* * *


	3. The Second Letter

"It's a good idea!" James had insisted, years before. "This way, if one of us snuffs it before the others, whoever's still around will have a proper goodbye."

"And of course," Remus had put in, "Lily's the one who gave you the idea in the first place."

James had flushed slightly. "Well, yes. But still."

"I think it's a good idea, Prongs," Peter had piped up. He had been more subdued than usual for a few months by then, but the idea of writing these letters to family and loved ones seemed to give him a jolt of energy.

Sirius had shrugged. "Alright, then, let's write!" And so they had.

Now, years later, he found himself writing once more, although this time no one grinned at him from across the table. James and Lily were both gone, Peter was a traitor, he was in hiding, and Remus was out somewhere with Tonks.

Tonks.

A grin spread across Sirius' face, and he lowered his quill to the piece of parchment and started to write.

_Dear Remus,_

_Feels kind of weird to write this..._

* * *

Remus was staring at a letter addressed in Sirius' familiar handwriting to _Remus J. Lupin, a.k.a. Moony_. He knew what it was; he had written letters like this one before, and had read James' and Lily's and even Peter's to him years before.

Farewell letters. If the writer of the letter didn't survive, their friends and family would have a final goodbye in letter form.

It was a long time before he could bring himself to read Sirius' last letter to him.

Slitting open the envelope carefully, Remus Lupin pulled out a piece of parchment and began to read.

_Dear Remus,_

_Feels kind of weird to write this, knowing that if you read it, I'll be dead...I think I wrote that the last time I wrote one of these letters, actually, funny how that works out..._

_Alright. First off, let's get a few things straight._

_I have no idea how I will have died (let's face it, you won't be reading this unless I'm dead), but __it is not your fault__. Got it? Good. Now, let's move on._

_I assure you, Moony, I will be most displeased if you mourn me to the point of idiocy. You're practically the last Marauder left, mate! Or you will be if you're reading this. But you have to carry on the legacy, because Wormtail sure won't be._

_And now we come to dear Cousin Tonks. Or Nymphadora, whatever you prefer, although I somehow don't think she'd let even you call her that. I dare you to try it, though, I'd like to see her reaction—oh, wait, I wouldn't be able to—never mind, do it anyway, I'll just watch from the afterlife, or something, and laugh._

_Look, Moony, just ask her out already. She likes you. You like her. Trust me, mate. Just go for it._

_And __before you go off with the whole 'I'm too old and dangerous for her' speech, let me remind you of the age-old 'love conquers all', _(Remus could practically sense that Sirius had been making a rather disgusted face at the last three words) _as well as the not-so-age-old invention of __Wolfsbane Potion__. Ever hear of that, Moony? Or you can always go with that Tonks doesn't really care if you've got a 'furry little problem'—kind of like the rest of we Marauders did, except that none of us ever liked you __that__ way. _

_I mean it, Remus__, as her out. If you've got even half a brain, you won't regret it._

Remus stared at the parchment rather incredulously. Was Sirius, well, serious? He wouldn't be good for Tonks...

_I know what you're thinking, Moony_, Sirius' handwriting told him, _and you __would__ be good for her. She'd be good for you too, come to think of it. Really, mate, it's all for the best. Just __ask her out__._

Sirius knew him—had known him—much too well, Remus thought wryly.

He had also probably known that Remus would seriously (pun almost definitely intended) consider doing what Sirius had asked, if only because, in a way, it was his final request. Or at least one of them.

_I also want you to make sure that Harry's alright,_ Sirius' letter continued. _You'll probably do it anyway, and Molly Weasley definitely will, but a reminder can't hurt. If he's somehow managing to blame himself for my, well, death, tell him from me he's being stupid. Actually, I'll write him a letter—but tell him anyway, he probably needs to hear it more than once._

That was probably true, Remus thought. And Harry was blaming himself.

How was it that Sirius had been able to predict the reactions of everyone he had known so accurately?

_Have yourself a good life, Moony. You deserve it. _

_Marauders forever!_

_-Sirius_

Remus folded the letter, brow furrowed in thought. He'd tell Harry, of course, but then there was the thing with Tonks…

"Remus? Are you in there?"

For one wild moment, he thought that she had somehow been summoned by his wonderings; but the woman who entered the room was Hestia Jones.

"What is it?" he asked hurriedly. Was something wrong?

"Don't look so worried," Hestia said softly. "Molly just sent me to find you. She wants you downstairs for dinner. She also," Hestia frowned, "wants me to fetch Harry. But I don't know how or where—"

"I'll get him." Remus stood, tucking Sirius' letter into his pocket. "I have a message for him anyway." He nodded to Hestia and left the room, heading towards where Buckbeak the Hippogriff resided. Harry had been spending much time there, recently.

Perhaps it made him feel closer to Sirius, Remus mused as he strode past a rather ugly tapestry. Perhaps that was why he spent so much time with the Hippogriff, who had flown with Sirius to freedom…

He reached the door, and knocked. "Harry?"

But Harry, for a change, was not there. Remus determined this after knocking repeatedly, and finally opening the door and looking in. Finding no sign of Harry, he decided to look elsewhere.

But where would the boy _be_?

Maybe in Sirius' old room?

With a shrug, Remus decided that the idea was worth following up, and so he walked down halls and up stairs, and down more halls, and down so many more stairs that he nearly got lost, until he finally found the bedroom that had once been Sirius'.

He knocked.

"Harry? Are you in there?"

A long pause, and then a sigh.

"Yeah."

"Can I come in?"

Another sigh. "Sure."

Remus frowned, but he opened the door anyway, and entered.

"Molly wants you to come down for dinner," he said gently to the apathetic teen lying sprawled across the bed.

Harry turned his messy head towards Remus and away. "I'm not hungry."

Remus sighed, and took a seat on a chair. "You have to stop blaming yourself, Harry."

"Sorry?"

"You're blaming yourself for what happened to Sirius."

Harry didn't even bother to deny it.

"So?"

"I have a message for you. From Sirius."

Harry shot upright. "What? How?"

"A letter he left me, Harry, he left you one as well..."

"That's the message? That he left me a letter?"

"Not really." Remus sighed, rubbing his temple briefly. "He says that, if you're somehow blaming yourself for his death, I should tell you from him that you're being stupid."

Harry's mouth fell open.

"I swear. It was in his letter. Here—" Remus pulled out the letter, searching until he found the right line. "'If he's somehow managing to blame himself for my, well, death, tell him from me he's being stupid.' He's referring to you."

Harry looked at Remus and then down at his hands, frowning.

"He'd want you to live, Harry," Remus said softly. "He wouldn't want you to forget him, but he'd want you to go on. He probably wrote something of the sort in his letter to you."

Harry was silent, still staring at his hands.

Remus sighed and got up. "Just think about it, all right? And come down for dinner, Molly's really worried about you."

"She is?"

"Of course. She views you as a second son—no, that's not right. She views you as a...seventh son, I think." He was relieved to hear Harry laugh weakly for the first time since Sirius had fallen through the Veil. "I'll tell Molly you'll be down in about ten minutes, then?"

After a long pause, Harry nodded. "Yeah. I'll be there."

"Good."

And Remus left, leaving Harry to his thoughts.

After a long five minutes, Harry finally stood up.

He ran a hand through his hair (which did nothing to ease the messiness) and took a last look at the picture of the four Marauders that was stuck permanently to Sirius' wall.

"I'll live," he said quietly, and followed Remus' path out of the room, closing the door gently behind him.

From their positions in the old picture, the four Marauders waved, forever young and laughing.

Forever happy.

* * *

Finished and posted on August 26, 2009.


	4. Author's note and 'claimer'

June 14, 2010

Greetings,

I would firstly like to apologize for the long pause in updates. I would also like to thank everyone who has reviewed, etc.

With that done, I would like to announce something (no, I'm not discontinuing this).

I do have part of the next letter-story written, and when it is finished it will go up; however, I have also recently remembered a group of letters that I wrote in 2008-9-actually, the first letter in Dear xxxxx, was from that, although it was one of the most recent. The others are not from the dead to the living, nor from the living to the dead; they are to and from the canonical living and the made-up living. There are several following various story arcs.

I am thinking of posting these here, and making Dear xxxxx, what I suppose it really is: letters. Just letters. Some to the dead from the living and to the living from the dead; but some that are simply ordinary letters.

A note, however: while I was originally writing these as a joint effort, I am only going to post the letters which I myself wrote. If I were to post a letter from the same story arc which I did not write-well, first I'd have to find it, and second I would have to ask permission, and third I would say whose it was. It's unlikely that I'll be posting letters that I didn't write, though; and, odds are, I'll write new letters to fill in any gaps.

So, in short, what I will be doing is this: continuing the 'tradition' of letters to the dead from the living and vice versa, while adding in letters from the living to the living as well. Some of those letters will follow story arcs, which will be introduced by either a note or a piece of a story. Hopefully you have no objections to this...

~DawnFire~

PS: **A second disclaimer must be added-or, I suppose, a 'claimer', if such a think exists. I hereby claim any OCs that turn up in the following letters, and once again (to be redundant) disclaim any canon characters. The various story arcs are either mine or the Harry Potter community's. The writing is mine unless stated otherwise, and if stated otherwise permission will have been granted to post those writings.**

Merlin, that was boring. Oh, yes, and it **applies for the rest of the fic**, unless I change it back to strictly to-dead-from-living-and-vice-versa. :)

~DF~


	5. A Letter For Luna

From: Ginny Potter  
12 Grimmauld Place  
London, England

To: Luna Lovegood Scamander  
Tibet, Asia

Dear Luna,

Thank you very much for the little horn, it's very nice. Are you sure it's not an Erumpent Horn? Hermione says that it is, and she tends to know about things like that...

I've put it on the little shelf above Lily's bed, it already has a collection of shells and sea glass from the beach on it, the horn looks very nice there...I am trying to keep Albus and James away from it. Hermione assures me that it is not harmful in any way, as it is not from a full-grown Erumpent (to tell the truth, I've no idea what an Erumpent is), but I should hate for them to break it, as it is really quite pretty, and Lily would regret not having it.

I think the full-grown horn may be a little big to travel by owl post, maybe you should bring it back with you and give it to your father when you see him next...  
And speaking of your father, he said that he was having a similar problem with the post, we had him over for dinner last night and he said he was trying to send you-well I'm not quite sure what it was, but it's something to do with Blibbering Hum-sorry, I've forgotten the name.

Remember young Teddy Lupin? He's teaching James how to fly, they're both getting really good. We used to have mock Quidditch matches, but then they crashed Harry's Firebolt, so there won't be any for a month as punishment.

We had a letter from Hagrid, apparently Grawp is coming along really well, knows English properly, and is learning to manage his strength. Madame Maxime seems to have stayed too, Hagrid seems really happy-I hear they're planning a wedding for next summer, maybe you'll be back by then. I told Mum, and she's already thinking of where we should have it.

You'll never guess what else! Draco Malfoy wrote a thank you letter to Harry. I'd never have expected it, but he seems to have had a change of heart. We've had him and Harry's cousin Dudley both over for dinner, and Dudley's really a very nice person, not at all what I expected from what Harry told me about him. Malfoy was a bit stiff, not surprisingly, but his wife is lovely, and we soon broke the ice.

Must run, James is yelling something about owls in the kitchen, and I think I can smell the soup burning-unless it's the Smell Powder that George gave Albus, I never know if something's really happened or not. I must remember to tell Mum to yell at George, she's better at it then I am—

Lots of love to you, Lorcan, Lysander and Rolf,  
Ginny (and Harry, James, Albus and Lily).

* * *

From February 18, 2008. _There is no particular story arc for this letter, although there are references within it to small stories within other letters (such as Luna's presents, Hagrid's letter, Draco's letter-if I remember correctly-and...that's it, I think. I hereby disclaim those ideas :D )._


	6. A Wizard of Israel

Kingsley Shacklebolt  
Minister for Magic (England)  
Ministry of Magic  
London, England

Dear Minister Shacklebolt,

Shalom, that is, hello, my name is Shlomo Meir, I am the Israeli Minister for Magic. Word has reached here in Jerusalem that the Lord Voldemort has been defeated. I would like to take the opportunities to effect an exchange between England and Israel of Aurors and students so that we may learn from each other. I have not done this before now in the last seventy-odd years for the fact that I do not wish to send any of my people into dangerous places. But since we are assured that the threat has passed, it would give me great pleasure to rebegin this tradition of learning. I wait your return yanshuf-that is, owl-as to whether you wish to continue the tradition and send some of your Aurors abroad to Israel for a number of years to learn and teach. I will also be sending an owl to Hogwarts School to ask the Headmaster about the matter of students exchange. If you could please to respond quickly, the oversea flight takes rather a while, and an early answer would be appreciated.

Shalom U'vracha,  
Shlomo Meir

Shlomo Meir  
Sar HaKsamim (Yisrael)  
Misrad HaKsamim  
Rechov Ben-David  
Yerushalayim, Yisrael

(translation: Shlomo Meir  
Minister for Magic (Israel)  
Ministry of Magic  
Ben-David Street  
Jerusalem, Israel)

* * *

_A/N: Written on May 18/19 2008, edited slightly and posted here on September 12, 2010. The ideas in this one are all mine, and I made up Shlomo Meir. (I'd say he's named for Shlomo Carlebach and Golda Meir, but I really don't know if that's what I was thinking when I made him up two years ago). It seems to me that there should be Israeli wizards, and that an exchange like this would be plausible..._

_I also think that Shlomo Meir would write his own letter in this case, which accounts for the slightly mangled English...Which reminds me: all grammar, etc issues above are intentional._

_Also: For anyone who doesn't speak Hebrew, 'Shalom U'vracha' means something like 'peace and blessing'. It doesn't translate too well into English, but that's the literal translation anyway..._


	7. Mother and Son

To: Ginny Potter  
12 Grimmauld Place  
London, England

From:  
James S. Potter  
Gryffindor House  
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry  
Uncharted

Dear Mum,  
I think Dad wishes you hadn't sent him a Howler, when it started yelling he kind of hunched into his seat like he was trying to avoid it. Then he tried some charm—I think he said 'silencio'—but it didn't work. Slytherin was rolling on the floor, laughing, and Professor Malfoy looked like he was trying not to join them. Was he really a Slytherin once? He seems too nice for that, but I'm starting to wonder. He favours them a bit. Uncle Ron looked like he'd seen—or rather heard—a ghost. I think he was really glad he wasn't the one being yelled at. I almost laughed too—all right, I WAS laughing—but the look on Dad's face—!

Al's in Slytherin, he's really happy about it. Can't think why.  
Hi Lily, hope everything's fine at home and you're not too bored without us.

Mum, Victoire's moping about and all she talks about is Teddy. I think they're going to get married—Lily'll be happy. Me too, come to think of it. He came to see her once, and it was so mushy that I didn't bother watching them for long. I tried to interrupt, but there was some sort of barrier. I wonder why.

I think Uncle George is going to buy some shop in Hogsmeade, I really can't wait 'til next year so I can go to Hogsmeade!

Rose says hi, and so does Al. Dad says to tell you that "he sends his love."

I hate Scorpius Malfoy. He's friends with Al now, and Al barely talks to me. I was only TEASING about him being in Slytherin, but now that he is, I really wish he was in Gryffindor. I've no idea how he ended up in there, and I wish he hadn't.

Love,  
James

* * *

_A/N: Written February 25, 2008, edited slightly and posted here on July 31, 2011. This technically continues a story arc which is not posted here, but I think it's understandable without the rest. Some of the ideas in this letter are probably not mine. I disclaim those. Also, the formatting is intentional-remember, James is about 12 here._


End file.
